M/E/A/N/I/N/G, 1986–1996 (ed. Susan Bee and Mira Schor)
Founded in December of 1986 by editors Susan Bee and Mira Schor, M/E/A/N/I/N/G provided a timely vehicle for an expanded practice of art criticism from its locus in New York City.Reflecting on the origins of the magazine in an introduction to the final issue, the editors write: “we felt the need for an alternative to the market orientation of mainstream art magazines and the frequently exclusionary theoretical orientation of more academic journals, both of which seemed distant from the actual creative lives of a majority of thoughtful and informed working visual artists.”In twenty issues published over the course of a decade, M/E/A/N/I/N/G indexes the most compelling questions of its time while offering a wide range of informative and provocative critical perspectives that remain contemporary. Designed by Susan Bee, the magazine measures 8.5” by 11” perfect bound with the exception of the first four side stapled issues. The final “visual forum” double issue featured a single image from most contributors in alphabetical order alongside a thorough index to the full run of the magazine compiled by Anne Tardos.
M/E/A/N/I/N/G: An Anthology of Artists’ Writings, Theory, and Criticism, edited by Bee and Schor and featuring a selection of material from the original journal was published by Duke University Press in 2000. The collection remains in print, with a cover featuring a detail of a painting by Joan Snyder. Since 2002, Bee and Schor have maintained their editorial collaboration with M/E/A/N/I/N/G Online. They published their 25th Anniversary issue in late 2011, the contents of which can be found here.
Full issues of M/E/A/N/I/N/G are available for download or browsing below. The index to each issue attempts to retain the formatting of the contents as printed in the magazine, including original pagination. Each PDF is fully searchable and bookmarked for easy navigation to individual works within the magazine. This reissue was scanned by Amelia Bentley and edited by Danny Snelson with the support of Susan Bee, Charles Bernstein, and the Kelly Writers House.
The complete set of twenty issues is available for download here: [ZIP, 540 MB]
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #1, December 1986 [PDF, 21 MB]
Contents
| For M/E/A/N/I/N/G | Charles Bernstein |
p.3 |
| APPROPRIATED SEXUALITY | Mira Schor |
p.8 |
| LES IMMATERIAUX: Long-term Effects of the Exhibition | Johanna Drucker | p.18 |
| PORFIRIO DIDONNA: In Memory | Alan Davies, Lee Sherry, and Jake Berthot | p.24 |
| FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF RENE SANTOS | Brad Baker and Ann Schoenfeld | p.27 |
| RIVET, LIVELY FOR BEING ITSELF | Mimi Gross | p.31 |
| RUNNING ON EMPTY: An Artist’s Life in New York | Susan Bee | p.33 |
| MOTHER BASEBALL | Vanalyne Green | p.35 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #2, November 1987 [PDF, 26 MB]
Contents
| FORUM | Arakawa & Madeleine Gins; Susan Bee; Robert Berlind; Jake Berthot; Power Boothe; Collins & Milazzo; Maureen Connor; Alan Cote; Rackstraw Downes; Janet Heit; Bob Holman; David Humphrey; Komar & Melamid; Medrie MacPhee; Elizabeth Murray; Mark Van Proyen; Yvonne Rainer; Salvatore Romano; Miriam Schapiro; David Von Schlegell; Ann Schoenfeld; Ken Sofer; Pat Steir; Robert Storr; Lawrence Weiner | p.3 |
| BONNARD’S ANTS | Mira Schor | p.22 |
| BATS | Tom Knechtel | p.27 |
| DEAR ELLSWORTH KELLY | Barbara Flug Colin | p.29 |
| THE DISCOVERED UNCOVERED | Nancy Spero | p.32 |
| PEACE/NUN/PIECE: April 17-24, 1987 |
Pamela Shoemaker | p.34 |
| ART WITHOUT RHETORIC | Johanna Drucker | p.38 |
| CONTRIBUTORS | p.43 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #3, May 1988 [PDF, 23 MB]
Contents
| Florine Stettheimer: Eccentric Power, Invisible Tradition | Pamela Wye |
p.3 |
| The Art School Can Be a Research Workshop or the Hotbed of Consumer Orthodoxy | Lucio Pozzi |
p.13 |
| Some Remarks on Racism in the American Arts | Daryl Chin | p.18 |
| What Is Divided? | Charles Bernstein | p.26 |
| Stella, the Star — No. 2 | Corinne Robins | p.30 |
| The Poetics of Basketry: Art in a Tribal Context | David M. Guss | p.31 |
| Letter to the Editors | Richard Artschwager | p.38 |
| Contributors | p.38 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #4, November 1988 [PDF, 24 MB]
Contents
| Representations of the Penis | Mira Schor |
p.3 |
| A Conversation with Richards Jarden | Robert Berlind |
p.18 |
| Reorganized Meditations on Mnemonic Threshold | Joseph Nechvatal |
p.26 |
| The Myth of Aesthetic Autonomy: On Allan Kaprow | Johanna Drucker |
p.27 |
| Nancy Spero: Speaking in Tongues | Pamela Wye |
p.33 |
| Contributors | p.42 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #5, May 1989 [PDF, 26 MB]
Contents
| FORUM 1989 | Emma Amos; Cay Bahnmiller; Lillian Ball; Susan Bee; Nancy Bowen; Arthur C. Danto; Robert Feintuch; Sharon Gold; Dan Graham; Mimi Gross; Marcia Hafif; Susanna Heller; Lenore Malen; Diane Neumaier; Rebecca Quaytman; Arlene Raven; David Reed; Meyer Raphael Rubinstein; Mira Schor; Pamela Shoemaker; Harriet Shorr; May Stevens; Richard Tuttle; Faith Wilding | p.3 |
| The Critic Is (?) Artist | Marcia Hafif | p.21 |
| The End of Artists? | Charles Bernstein | p.24 |
| The Success of Failure | Joel Fisher | p.28 |
| BOOK REVIEWS | Louise Hamlin, Tony Green, Pamela Wye, Tom Knechtel, Daryl Chin, Geoffrey Young | p.33 |
| Contributors | p.46 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #6, November 1989 [PDF, 31 MB]
Contents
| A Conversation on Censorship with Carolee Schneemann | Aviva Rahmani | p.3 |
| A Chinaman’s Chance | Daryl Chin | p.8 |
| Blood and Milk: Musings on the Wound and the Breast | Faith Wilding | p.13 |
| Figure/Ground | Mira Schor | p.18 |
| Late Nadelman | Brandt Junceau | p.28 |
| The Critic and the Hare: Meditations on the Death of My Rabbit | Ann McCoy | p.34 |
| Book Reviews | Ilan Stavans, Whitney Chadwick, Johanna Drucker, Joseph Nechvatal, Geoffrey Young | p.36 |
| Contributors | p.54 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #7, May 1990 [PDF, 30 MB]
Contents
| CONTEMPORARY VIEWS ON RACISM IN THE ARTS | Emma Amos; Josely Carvalho; Daryl Chin; Tom Finkelpearl; Madeline Gins; Renee Green; Hung Liu; Fern Logan; Robert C. Morgan; Juan Sanchez; Robert Storr; Florence Wong | p.3 |
| Work To Be Done | Gil Ott | p.28 |
| “Post-Feminism” — A Remasculinization of Culture? | Amelia Jones | p.29 |
| September 21, 1989 | Richard Tuttle | p.41 |
| Book Reviews | Johanna Drucker, Susan Bee, L. Brandon Krall, Charles Bernstein | p.42 |
| Contributors | p.52 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #8, November 1990 [PDF, 30 MB]
Contents
| SYMBOLISM: CONTEMPORARY MANIFESTATIONS | Lenore Malen; Ellen Lanyon; Peter Schjeldahl; Nancy Spero; Robert Storr |
p.3 |
| “Dark Art” into Allegory: From Transfiguration to Refiguration | Daniel Barbiero |
p.11 |
| Questions of Art | Lucio Pozzi |
p.18 |
| Authority and Learning | Mira Schor |
p.29 |
| We Interrupt This Reading. . . | Janet Kaplan |
p.36 |
| Stasis | Curtis Mitchell |
p.41 |
| Why We Need “Bad Girls” Rather Than “Good” Ones! | Corinne Robins | p.43 |
| Book Review | Elyse Cheney | p.49 |
| Contributors | p.53 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #9, May 1991 [PDF, 30 MB]
Contents
| The Response as Such: Words in Visibility | Charles Bernstein |
p.3 |
| The Absence of Body/The Fantasy of Representation | Amelia Jones | p.9 |
| The Collapse of the 80s Image | Joseph Nechvatal | p.24 |
| Damaged Speech. On Recent Political Art | Robert Jensen | p.27 |
| Spanish Haarlem |
Daryl Chin | p.35 |
| Book Reviews | Whitney Chadwick, Robert C. Morgan, Elizabeth Willis | p.40 |
| Letter | Barbara Pollack | p.49 |
| Contributors | p.53 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #10, November 1991 [PDF, 23 MB]
Contents
| OVER TIME: A FORUM ON ART MAKING |
Rudolf Baranik; Larry Bell; Rosemarie Castoro; Arthur Cohen; Bailey Doogan; Hermine Ford; Nancy Fried; Leon Golub; John Goodyear; Mimi Gross; Nancy Grossman; Yvonne Jacquette; Ellen Lanyon; Ann McCoy; Melissa Meyer; Howardena Pindell; Lucio Pozzi; Jacques Roch; Miriam Schapiro; Carolee Schneemann; Richard Tuttle; David von Schlegell; Lawrence Weiner; Faith Wilding | p.3 |
| Alison Knowles: An Interview | Aviva Rahmani |
p.21 |
| Whose Agenda? False Dichotomies on an Uneven Ground | May Stevens |
p.26 |
| Book Reviews | Robert C. Morgan, Robert Berlind, Mira Schor |
p.28 |
| Letter | Kathleen Fraser |
p.40 |
| Contributors | p.43 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #11, May 1992 [PDF, 30 MB]
Contents
| Visual Pleasure: A Feminist Perspective | Johanna Drucker | p.3 |
| A ROUND TABLE ON CRITICISM | Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe; Jeanne Silverthorne; Sidney Tillim; Robert C. Morgan; Mira Schor; Saul Ostrow; Klaus Ottmann; Marjorie Welish; Joshua Decter; Steven Melville; John Miller; Pat McCoy | p.12 |
| Brisas del Caribe: Renegade Space, The New Era Project, and the Value Discourse | Collins & Milazzo | p.28 |
| Innovations in Image Technology | Joseph Nechvatal | p.38 |
| Book Reviews |
Daryl Chin, Robert C. Morgan, Jessica Prinz |
p.41 |
| Letter | Yve-Alain Bois | p.50 |
| Contributors | p.53 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #12, November 1992 [PDF, 35 MB]
Contents
| FORUM: ON MOTHERHOOD, ART, AND APPLE PIE | Emma Amos; Suzanne Anker; Susan Bee; Emily Cheng; Myrel Chernick; Peggy Cyphers; Stephanie DeManuelle; Jane Dickson; Bailey Doogan; Hermine Ford; Mimi Gross; Freya Hansell; Yvonne Jacquette; Joyce Kozloff; Ellen Lanyon; Betty Lee; Lenore Malen; Ann Messner; Diane Neumaier; Nancy Pierson; Barbara Pollack; Erika Rothenberg; Miriam Schapiro; Arlene Shechet; Dena Shottenkirk; Joan Snyder; Elke Solomon; Nancy Spero; May Stevens; Carol Szymanski; Martha Wilson; Barbara Zucker | p.3 |
| Cartoons of the Self: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Murderer — Art Spiegelman’s Maus | Nancy K. Miller | p.43 |
| The Drunken Conversation of Chaos and Painting | James Elkins | p.55 |
| Contributors | p.61 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #13, May 1993 [PDF, 30 MB]
Contents
| A History of Art | Stewart Buettner | p.3 |
| Working the Park | Curtis Mitchell |
p.6 |
| The Comfy Chair | Jo Anna Isaak | p.14 |
| Course Proposal | Mira Schor | p.20 |
| Those Little White Lies | Daryl Chin | p.24 |
| Media Baptisms | David Reed | p.31 |
| Transactional Space | Jordan Crandall | p.34 |
| Book Reviews | Susan Bee, Steven O’Leary Harvey , Johanna Drucker, Barry Schwabsky, Robert C. Morgan | p.42 |
| Contributors | p.55 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #14, November 1993 [PDF, 31 MB]
Contents
| The Return of the Feminist Body | Amelia Jones | p.3 |
| A Conversation on Lesbian Subjectivity and Painting with Deborah Kass | Patricia Cronin | p.7 |
| Aesthetic and Postmenopausal Pleasures | Joanna Frueh | p.13 |
| Muse Begets Crone | Whitney Chadwick | p.20 |
| just a sketch. . . | Laura Cottingham | p.24 |
| We Need a New History | Jack and Sheila Butler | p.32 |
| Book Reviews | Mira Schor, Robert C. Morgan, Joseph Nechvatal | p.42 |
| Contributors | p.51 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #15, May 1994 [PDF, 26 MB]
Contents
| FORUM: ON CREATIVITY AND COMMUNITY | Suzanne Anker; Susan Bee; Jackie Brookner; Daryl Chin; Jordan Crandall; Bailey Doogan; David Humphrey; William Pope. L; Barbara Pollack; Lucio Pozzi; Jerry Saltz; Mira Schor; Harriet Shorr |
p.3 |
| The Indivisible Individual Invisible In There | G. Roger Denson |
p.30 |
| Yayoi Kusama: In Between the Outside and Inside | Pamela Wye |
p.37 |
| The Birth of Metatheory | Dena Shottenkirk |
p.42 |
| Book Reviews | Charles Bernstein |
p.48 |
| Contributors | p.53 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #16, November 1994 [PDF, 41 MB]
Contents
| WORKING CONDITIONS: A Forum on Art and Everyday Life by Younger Artists | Douglas Anderson; Jimbo Blachly; Serena Bocchino; Richard Brown; Kathe Burkhart; Kevin deForest; Jason Fox; Ava Gerber; Hilary Helfant; Lisa Hoke; Julia Jacquette; Jenifer Kobylarz; Robert Kuszek; Lawrence Lipkin; Mery Lynn McCorkle; Michael Mikulay; Holly Miller; Gregory Montreuil; David Moreno; Portia Munson; Kathryn Myers; Paul Pagk; Alix Pearlstein; Enoc Perez; Rebecca Quaytman; Trudie Reiss; Christian Schumann; Kate Shepherd; Amy Sillman; Hugh Steers; Laura Stein; Danny Tisdale; Nicola Tyson; Anthony Viti; Derek Weiler; Michael Windle; Karen Yasinsky; Alexander Zane |
p.3 |
| When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears: An Interview with Thomas McEvilley | Dominique Nahas | p.45 |
| “I Don’t Take Voice Mail” | Charles Bernstein | p.55 |
| The Future of Writing | Johanna Drucker | p.62 |
| Book Review | Misko Suvakovic | p.65 |
| Contributors | p.69 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #17, May 1995 [PDF, 28 MB]
Contents
| Mainstream Mythopoesis | G. Roger Denson | p.3 |
| Mom and Pop Art | Daryl Chin | p.11 |
| Centering the Art (Arts?) of the Book | Charles Alexander | p.21 |
| Ways of Seeing de Kooning | Barbara Flug Colin | p.27 |
| Book Reviews | Barbara Einzig, Nick Piombino, Robert C. Morgan, Daniel Barbiero | p.30 |
| Letters | Nicholas Frank, Deborah J. Haynes | p.48 |
| Contributors | p.55 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #18, November 1995 [PDF, 37 MB]
Contents
| Monstrous Domesticity | Faith Wilding | p.3 |
| BRAVE NEW ART WORLD: A Symposium | Lenore Malen, Irving Sandler, Michael Brenson, Debra Bricker Balken, Michi Itami | p.17 |
| Painting as Manual | Mira Schor | p.31 |
| The Stranger | Pam Longobardi | p.42 |
| Painting After Painting: The Paintings of Susan Bee | Misko Suvakovic | p.46 |
| Book Reviews | Nick Piombino, Tom Knechtel, Corinne Robins, Robert C. Morgan | p.54 |
| Contributors | p.77 |
M/E/A/N/I/N/G #19-20, May 1996 [PDF, 65 MB]
Contents
| M/E/A/N/l/N/G from A to Z: A Visual Forum | Emma Amos; Douglas Anderson; Suzanne Anker; Ida Applebroog; Lillian Ball; Rudolf Baranik; Susan Bee; Charles Bernstein; Jake Berthot; Jimbo Blachly; Serena Bocchino; Power Boothe; Nancy Bowen; Jackie Brookner; Richard Brown; Kathe Burkhart; Jack Butler; Sheila Butler; Rosemarie Castoro; Emily Cheng; Myrel Chernick; Daryl Chin; Maureen Connor; Jordan Crandall; Peggy Cyphers; Kevin deForest; Stephanie DeManuelle; Jane Dickson; Bailey Doogan; Rackstraw Downes; Johanna Drucker; Hermine Ford; Jason Fox; Nicholas Frank; Nancy Fried; Ava Gerber; Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe; Sharon Gold; Leon Golub; John Goodyear; Mimi Gross; Nancy Grossman; Marcia Hafif; Freya Hansell; Hilary Helfant; Susanna Heller; Lisa Hoke; David Humphrey; Michi Itami; Julia Jacquette; Yvonne Jacquette; Tom Knechtel; Alison Knowles; Komar & Melamid; Joyce Kozloff; L. Brandon Krall; Robert Kuszek; Ellen Lanyon; Lawrence Lipkin; Fern Logan; Pam Longobardi; Medrie MacPhee; Lenore Malen; Ann McCoy; Ann Messner; Melissa Meyer; Michael Mikulay; Holly Miller; John Miller; Curtis Mitchell; Gregory Montreuil; David Moreno; Robert C. Morgan; Portia Munson; Kathryn Myers; Joseph Nechvatal; Diane Neumaier; Paul Pagk; Enoc Perez; Nancy Pierson; Howardena Pindell; Barbara Pollack; William Pope. L; Lucio Pozzi; Rebecca Quaytman; Aviva Rahmani; David Reed; Trudie Reiss; Jacques Roch; Sal Romano; Erika Rothenberg; Juan Sanchez; Miriam Schapiro; Carolee Schneemann; Mira Schor; Christian Schumann; Arlene Shechet; Kate Shepherd; Pamela Shoemaker; Harriet Shorr; Dena Shottenkirk; Amy Sillman; Joan Snyder; Elke Solomon; Nancy Spero; May Stevens; Robert Storr; Sidney Tillim; Danny Tisdale; Nicola Tyson; Derek Weiler; Lawrence Weiner; Faith Wilding; Martha Wilson; Michael Windle; Flo Oy Wong; Pamela Wye; Karen Yasinsky; Alexander Zane; Barbara Zucker | p.3 |
| Contributors | p.125 | |
| Index to Issues #1-20 | p.130 |
